Michael Andretti F1 1993 back story

[450knotOffice]

I CLEARLY remember that year and what an absolute POS that car was. I felt bad for Michael that he got into that team just as they produced their absolute worst car of that era. Sort of like the crap they produce now. Senna wanted out so bad that year.

[javadog]

As bad as I felt for Michael that year, I feel even worse for Fernando Alonso, given what he went through the last few years. He should've won two or three more world championships than he did.

[450knotOffice]

Totally agree. Well, mostly. Not sure if he’d have any more championships, but at least he’d be in the hunt every year if he’d had a car from Merc, Ferrari, or Redbull.

[JFairman]

In post 52 there is a picture of Bob Wollek and AJ Foyt looking like buddies.

I took this picture at the Gran Prix of Palm Beach with a 35mm film camera. I don't remember the year but Preston Hen had his 962 there that year. Chassis number 962104 being the fourth 962 Porsche made.

Bob and AJ were standing there talking to each other and when I crouched down to take the picture Bob leaned over and sort of cuddled AJ to make it a fun picture moment and AJ just smiled.
That's part of the old Forum 3 building on Palm Beach Lakes Blvd in the background and I recognize the other face in the bottom left of the picture. His name may be Alwin but I'm not sure.

Back then I worked for Kevin Jeanette at Gunnar Porsche Racing in West Palm Beach doing body work.
Lots of cool memories from those days...

[javadog]

That's really cool that you took that actual picture. The year was 1985, that might be Andial's Alwin Springer in the corner.

I have never met Kevin Jeanette but I've watched a lot of his restoration videos on the Internet, he looks like a fun guy to work with. If I lived in Florida I'd almost work there for free...

[JFairman]

Yeah, Kevin is a really good guy.
I worked for him off and on for around 4 years in three different shop locations.
For a little while I was his only employee in a small shop he had on Georgia avenue here in West Palm after he stopped working for Miles Collier of Collier Historics.

[javadog]

Here's another video that jumps around a bit but a good chunk of it is a mid-season test at Silverstone. It might be the Monday and Tuesday after the British GP, in July. They are testing a new specification engine and I know they got an upgrade for the Silverstone race.

Note that about 8:27 into the video that Pat Fry is talking to Giorgio Ascanelli and describing an odd behavior of the car, when the engine is revved after a start and the car is still stationary, the entire car is jumping up and down, maybe 3mm at the front and 4-5mm at the rear. Hopefully it wasn't doing that on the track in corners, as the drivers got on and off of the throttle. A 1mm ride height change was enough to change the car's behavior in a corner.

Also note that they are talking to Mika about a driving problem he's having. He thinks there's something wrong with the engine, the engineers think it's a driver problem. He's losing nearly a second compared to Michael in the Magotts/Becketts complex. It's a left, right, left, right, left sequence of corners, taken at pretty high speed and the drivers have to slow down (and maybe drop a gear) going from Maggotts into Becketts. Mika is afraid he's going to lose the rear on entry and Michael is braking quite a bit later. They are running slightly different aero settings, but nearly a second is a huge chunk of time, in that short section of track.

Also note that they mentioned Michael doing a 1:22.5 lap time on his first run on day two. For reference, the fastest lap of the race that year was a 1:22.8, although they went faster in qualifying trim.

[oldE]

Originally Posted by javadog

Also note that they are talking to Mika about a driving problem he's having. He thinks there's something wrong with the engine, the engineers think it's a driver problem. He's losing nearly a second compared to Michael in the Magotts/Becketts complex. It's a left, right, left, right, left sequence of corners, taken at pretty high speed and the drivers have to slow down (and maybe drop a gear) going from Maggotts into Becketts. Mika is afraid he's going to lose the rear on entry and Michael is braking quite a bit later. They are running slightly different aero settings, but nearly a second is a huge chunk of time, in that short section of track.

Also note that they mentioned Michael doing a 1:22.5 lap time on his first run on day two. For reference, the fastest lap of the race that year was a 1:22.8, although they went faster in qualifying trim.

I also noted he mentions that Michael was running more rear wing than Mika is. I suspect Michael's car would feel more stable in the rear with that set up.

Best
Les

[javadog]

I ran across this video of the initial test. The weather looked miserable. When he was first asked how the car felt, he commented something along the lines of, "don't know, we only ran half a lap..."

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=c7cfyqaRj_4